Dear Elder Micheff and Michigan Conference Leaders:
We are members of the Loma Linda University Church, and my husband, Keith, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Loma Linda University. He is also a former Vice-President of the American Federation for Medical Research.
With all due respect, we are deeply concerned about the Michigan Conference’s move to ban (i.e., censor) Dr. Conrad Vine from speaking in your churches.
We are both lifelong, tithe-paying members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and consider ourselves on the more conservative end. We were shocked at the official actions of the General Conference during COVID, and Keith, who is both a Clinical Rheumatologist-Immunologist and a research scientist, realized there was much amiss in the “expert” scientific community regarding the vaccines and lockdowns. Once we realized that, we were further shocked at the (largely successful) efforts to silence dissenting voices of equally credentialed physicians and scientists, even within our own denomination.
Dr. Conrad Vine stood out in our church as an almost singular voice opposing these lockdowns, especially of churches, and of the heavy-handed government vaccine mandates. We can’t tell you what comfort and encouragement it provided us that at least one individual in our church had the courage to speak out against this and to take the General Conference to task for its support of this near-incomprehensible loss of liberty. And then, as now, to call it to public accountability.
Dr. Vine is not dividing the church. In case most administrators haven’t noticed, the church was already dividing and has been for some time. He has merely lanced a very large boil. As all good doctors know, boils cannot heal until they are lanced. But, to mix metaphors, talk about shooting the messenger!
Incidentally, we have not heard Dr. Vine say to “divert” tithe away from the Church. And he is not saying to do anything differently regarding one’s tithe or attendance at this time. He has merely provided one possible pathway for the future that doesn’t turn its back on the church but registers its strong dissent and the need to stand true and faithful in the face of intolerable error or apostasy, if and when that should occur (arguably again).
For you to now cancel Dr. Vine strikes many of us as collusion with the forces in this society that aim to abolish our religious and free-speech liberties and allow only voices that concur with the “anointed.” It seems beyond ironic that this is taking place within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has traditionally been most concerned with liberty, and with religious liberty in particular. A further irony is that the Religious Liberty Weekend at the Village Church was, to our understanding, organized by Dr. Vine, whom you then proceeded to silence!
It’s almost more than these two devout Seventh-day Adventists can bear. We simply cannot understand the lack of humility and reflection that seems apparent here in the actions and statements of your Conference. Beyond appearing to address a straw man, such a precipitous move against an individual who is, by all evidence, a profoundly Christian and deeply committed Seventh-day Adventist servant of God appears to us to violate the simplest precepts of Christian charity, if not also of wise leadership.
We are praying you will reconsider this move. Thanks for listening.
Together in His Service,
Keith and Janine Colburn
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I am an Orthomolecular Therapist and Clinical Naturopath and I also endorse this letter. I work with scientists here in Brazil who have a PhD in nanotechnology and who have issued a report against Phizer because they placed several Toxic substances in the vaccine. I would like to give my account of patients I have treated for the after-effects of this chemical weapon. Please, I await your contact. God bless you.
Very well written. Thank you to Dr. and Mrs. Colburn.
The suggestion by Dr. Vine that a parachurch organization might be advisable in the future to funnel tithes and offerings to church entities such an organization might deem worthy, is problematic for more than one reason. First and foremost, who would control such a parachurch organization? How would its constituents be selected? And on what grounds would tithe-worthiness be determined?
Vine’s free use of the “woke” label, and his indiscriminate mingling of right-wing political ideology with his pulpit ministry, makes any number of careful observers troubled at the sort of standards an independent organization of the sort he proposes might use to determine whether an entity is worthy of material support by the faithful. Vaccine mandates are only part of the problem. Dr. Vine’s mingling of secular politics with his sermons makes clear his intention to exacerbate even further the division current within the church along such lines. He and others of like mind seem quite unaware of Ellen White’s warnings against such divisiveness.
The statement by the authors of this letter that Vine “is not saying to do anything differently regarding one’s tithe or attendance at this time,” doesn’t mitigate the problem in the least. The very suggestion that at some future time it would be proper for faithful Seventh-day Adventists to consider diverting tithe on the basis of an issue that isn’t even addressed in the inspired writings (e.g. vaccine mandates), or even worse, on the basis of right-wing political allegiances, is reason enough to marginalize the ministry of one recommending such extreme measures.
As I noted in a recent article on my website, Ellen White is absolutely clear that tithes and offerings are not to be used as weapons of protest in connection with problems inside the church. In her words:
“Some have been dissatisfied, and have said, ‘I will no longer pay my tithe; for I have no confidence in the way things are managed at the heart of the work.’ But will you rob God because you think the management of the work is not right? Make your complaint, plainly and openly, in the right spirit, to the proper ones. Send in your petitions for things to be adjusted and set in order; but do not withdraw from the work of God, and prove unfaithful, because others are not doing right” (9T 249).
“The tithes and offerings are not the property of any man, but are to be used in doing a certain work for God. Unworthy ministers may receive some of the means thus used, but dare any one, because of this, withhold from the treasury, and brave the curse of God? I dare not. I pay my tithes gladly and freely, saying as did David, ‘Of Thine own have we given Thee.’ . . . If the Conference business is not managed according to the order of the Lord, that is the sin of the erring ones. The Lord will not hold you responsible for it, if you do what you can to correct the evil. But do not commit sin yourselves by withholding from God His own property” (2SAT 74-75).
Let’s not go there, folks. It’s happened before, in the very recent past, and the consequences have been egregiously hurtful. And let me say again that if it were not for the knee-jerk cultural and political polarization now being witnessed in America and other Western countries just now, this controversy would likely not exist in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Brother Paulson, you have truly missed the point of Brother Vine’s presentation. The real issue is not about tithe (aka $$), an area many objecters of his message seems to be side tracked with.
First, Dr Vine said a parachurch. Look up the term parachurch, is one beside a church & their function is to work along side to accomplish the mission.
Second, EGW had diverted tithe after the civil war to the Southern areas where lots of slaves were being converted, more then once.
Third, Dr Vine is not a pulpit minister, he is the president of the top Missionary Groups. He is not from US, and his wife is from Communist Russia. He was the Director of ADRA Eastern Europe because he got a degree in Business at first.
Forth, in totalitarian and socialist countries having a parachurch & underground church, is not that unusual. You could land yourself in death camps or hard labor camps.
Fifth, For the Michigan Conference not to consult with their local churches… on this is outside the scope of their job as they are acting in an autocratic manor.
Maybe they should take the speck out of someone elses eye AFTER they take the log out of their own… when has LGBTQ+ and DEI been allowed on our college compasses. Andrews, LaSierra and LLU all have this going on. Is this because if they dont they will not qualify with the Fed for financial aid grants and loans.
The universities all got incentives from students who agreed to take the shot for education incentives of 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000 USD.
The conferences and divisions all got bonuses for employers who inforced the vax mandate.
In 2022, At the GC Zierkle tried to get the church to change positions on helping people getting religious liberty Vaccine Mandates. This man made mRNA changed Gods DNA in humans… creating an amalgamation which is patentable.
Pr Vine tried to help Zerkle but got banned from as a constiuant at the GC Conferance.
Further, SOP states ministers and missionary Gospel workers and thier support staff is to be paid out Tithe – EGW HAS LOTS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.
Amazingly however, Advent Frontier Missions does not get paid out of tithe. Infact they get supporters to donate and I can attest, Dr Vine is very much a stickler about caring for God and your family first before you donate large sums to his charge. I have personally talked to him about this in December 2023 and in March… 2024.
Additionally, Judas was the treasurer for Christ and the 12 disciples. Jesus did not have the tithe they received to go to the Orthodox Jewish Church and Sanhedrin.
Who is the GC or Conferences to dictate what an individual does. It is not Dr Conrad Vine who gives the money, it is parishioners. If I chose to give my money to support Gods Missionaries and infrastructure… it is MY business.
I do not give tithe to people who support LGBTQ + in our churches and universities. I do not give tithe to an organisation that engage in this DEI stuff.
I do that! Not Dr Conrad, Not Amazing Facts, Not SUM
God does not want my tithe if I am not a cheerful giver.
Tithe has one purpose, to feed and support the gospel workers and missionaries.
No where have I read, Jesus or the disciples had a 401k. God does say that the tithe can support missionaries and I don’t think these people actually have a retirement date.
Further, Tithe is based on Increase and is also first fruits. If I work the land and Hurricane Helene comes along and destroys all my crops, do I have an Increase at the end of the year?
I still have to feed myself and my family. I still had to purchase Gas or Diesel for the tractor, cloths & shoes to work in, a place to lay my head. These expenses are fixed costs. I am not purchasing the Rolls Royce of tractors, though I might have a John Deere.
If I put in a 50,000 swimming pool to take a bath, when a 6000 dollar shower install would work, I own tithe on 44,000 extra because it was not necessity it is luxury.
Just think, if God had tithed the grain Joseph collected for Egypt? Under the current tithing system the GC advocates in manual.
All of my possessions, every year… (sounds like Personal Property Tax – like on your house or car) we know Tax Collectors were corrupt.
7 yrs… of plenty 7 of famine
Lets look at the first year harvest of the 14 yrs
10% yr 1
9% yr 2
8% yr 3
7% yr 4
6% yr 5
5% yr 6
4% yr 7
That is 49% of first year’s harvest preparing for a famine God told you to prepare for in advance.
These guys in these positions are possessed by Power, Greed. And steal the tithe in the way they manage it.
God did not set up a lot of what keeps being paid for. We have all this money going to schools and children who have 2 christian parents… but God has every three yrs tithe for widows and fatherless children.
Well, I can tell you… these churches and schools serve parishioners not the people who need help the most
I could go on.
Man was worshiping the god of science and pharmacuticals… well, read what Sister White has to say about Loma Linda and Glendale wanting to bow to the throne of Rockefeller’s AMA in getting credentials.
She calls Pharmacuticals toxic poison. (made with chemicals – not herbs and stuff.)
We were to open sanitariums and she outlined the health ministry. I do not ever remembering health care workers practicing “temperance” in a hospital. They want you to wake people up all day and night, with buzzers and ringers.
You get no rest in the hospital. And yet they say if you need to be in the hospital, you don’t need rest like 8 hours sleep.
Dr Vine is practicing in a World Church mode as he has mission fields in the 10/40 mission fields, all over.
He is preaching Religious Liberty on a scale few in US understand most have had a cushy life, live in big cities and wont come out.
The Midnight Cry is going to ring out…
We are not to be on beaches, cities, or just anywhere… we will need to flee to the mountains. How are your foraging skills?
May you be blessed and understand the root to which I am speaking to.
Pastor Conrad is doing Gods Work, and the people he leads are not in the US.
Michigan cant even do missionary work in much of their own state, let alone the world.
(BTW- I am a graduate of LLU SPH and have not worked as hard consistently since this C19 came out- 1978-present)
You seem removed from the real discussion about the mandates.
Dear Elder Paulson:
Thank you for your kind and lucid response.
With respect, Keith and I would like to make several observations in reply; I apologize in advance for the length of this:
First, Dr. Vine was preaching, he was not delivering a comprehensive treatise on how exactly we might implement his suggestions regarding tithe and attendance, if and when they should become necessary. He did not need to, as that time is not yet here, nor to our understanding is Dr. Vine suggesting it is. But your questions are valid ones, and they bear consideration for the future. They do not appear to us as insurmountable difficulties, more as logistical ones.
Dr. Vine is looking ahead, and he may in fact be seeing a truth that others of us are not yet fully seeing: that, while not quite here, the Time of Trouble may be imminently upon us, and it behooves us to be ready for it, not only with homegrown vegetables, but with homegrown churches, for when the official churches have, for instance, been possibly banned by a rogue government. COVID provided ample evidence that our own US government is capable of something very similar already, and that our Constitution was of little use in that regard for quite a while.
We see greater potential problems in implementing Dr. Vine’s suggestion of making reparations for those who claim to have been harmed by the General Conference official pronouncements during COVID. How, for example would the GC be able to determine with any certainty, without court action, whose injuries were directly or indirectly caused by the vaccines; which of the claimants would definitely not have taken, or definitely would not have had to take, the vaccine were it not for those GC statements; how much financial remuneration to allot to each case; and so on.
But, while perhaps some of his ideas may be difficult if not impossible to implement, and the circumstances he foresees as possible may never occur exactly as he visualizes, we do not see either of these suggestions as indicative of any malice or church rule-breaking on the part of Dr. Vine, nor a reason to take the extreme step of banning him from pulpits.
Second, while you are, of course, correct that vaccine mandates are not specifically addressed by inspired writings, Dr. Vine clearly has in mind the principle of concern with such mandates, for which a Biblical case would appear easily made—that is, no government should be able to force pharmaceuticals upon any individual. This might be dictated by common sense, but perhaps it is especially clear to those of us who believe our bodies are veritable temples of God, and we, as the temporary custodians of these temples, are to be the sovereign deciders of what is to go into them, based on our Biblical understandings. As with coercing a Sabbath, many of us do not believe any argument for the “common good” would ever be adequate to force people to take any medication, let alone a vaccine that had been little studied, and for which the very definition of “vaccine” had to be changed.
Your strongest point would appear to be that tithes and offerings ought never be used as “weapons of protest.” This is of course true, but we do not see that Dr. Vine is suggesting the use of them in that sense, at all. Rather, it appears he is envisioning there may come a time when church leadership at either the General or the local conference level has gone so far afield from normative Biblical or SDA principles that it would be neither right nor good to any longer fund those elements with our tithe money.
This is far from suggesting tithe ought to be diverted away from the Church. On the contrary, Dr. Vine is proposing a way to keep it within the Church, by funding those Church elements that remain in line with the clearest of Biblical principles, when such have been abandoned by certain segments of leadership. Whether Vine’s idea to differentiate “woke” conferences from “unwoke” conferences, whatever he means by that terminology, is at all reasonable or workable remains to be discussed; it may not be.
In that case, we feel sure Dr. Vine would be very open to alternative options for making sure our tithe money is not improperly used in extreme cases, which is clearly what he is discussing. The argument, “Just give your money through regular church channels, and let the leadership answer for how it is used,” is not going to be well received by those many Adventists who have already seen what they perceive to be a trend toward intolerable and unrepented error in church leadership today.
As a single example apart from COVID, one of our local conferences recently allowed advertising of a “Drag Brunch” which was originally to be held on the campus of one of our largest SDA university churches. It was to be in conjunction with an LGBGQ+ weekend “Kamp Meeting” at that church, which to our understanding went ahead. After members raised concerns, the “Drag Brunch,” which was said to be child-inclusive, was moved off campus. Some of us would (and did) see such a thing as intolerable error, and I for one would not wish to long fund a conference or a local church or university that continued down such a path, once the truth of the situation were established and no corrective was made. Yet I would not want to leave the Adventist Church, nor withhold from it my tithe.
Finally, to your point about “political polarization”: Some of us have connected certain dots we think we see, from the encroachment of what some would call radical secular leftism to understanding that this scourge is slowly infiltrating every social institution, including the Church. Others of us see no such reality and make no such connection, and therefore will, by some lights, seriously misunderstand the moment we are in. We don’t have to demonize each other; rather, we need to allow that there may be some truth to either viewpoint, that growth in understanding is possible, and we should remain open to new information. Debate and discussion is not only good for science; it is good for religion, too.
Yes, religious denominations may and should have boundaries; they are what constitute a church. But, in our view, they should not be drawn so tight that manifestly dedicated pastors should be excluded from pulpits for merely talking about exigencies and possible pathways forward that may, in extremis, become necessary.
We earnestly pray God has guided us as we have written these words, or at least that they do not go contrary to His will.
All the best,
Janine (and Keith) Colburn
PS. You will notice that I have not marshaled any Bible texts or Ellen White quotes. Simply put, I am not generally a fan of either “proof texts” or “proof quotes,” as too often other texts or quotes within the same corpus could easily be brought forward to make the opposite point. I trust our readers have enough maturity and wisdom to discern at least broad brushes of truth from what they themselves have gleaned from their overall study of inspired writings, in many cases over decades, and that such controversies as this will drive us all to study and pray anew.
Praise God! Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!! Aamen!!
Thank you Janine and Keith, for this succinct expression of a piece of your mind. This is a loud and thunderous echo of the silent thoughts and desires and prayers of many members of God’s family who have no voice in the “Public Square”.
My church family in a remote corner of the world, in Ghana share all of your sentiments herein expressed.
We’ll continue to pray for your request to be effective upon the hearts of the decision makers in the Michigan Conference, who have apparently purposed in their hearts to bring down our church by this their callous decision taken against God’s humble instrument, Dr. Vine.
Stay blessed.
Maranatha!
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words, Don. May God be served.
I concur. We see your heart and we also see the conference and the conference does not look “righteous” in this light. Thank you for speaking out in this letter.
Amen. I was glad to read this letter addressing the issue clearly. Dr Conrad Vine stands out as a voice in the wilderness crying out ‘make straight the paths of the Lord.’
I agree 100% with the content of this open letter. It applies to the G.C. leadership, Audio Verse, Secrets Unsealed and all who have joined in the silencing of Brother Conrad Vine.
The ‘church’ of the day took the ultimate silencing act when they crucified Jesus. It sure looks as though we SDA’s would have done the same!
Pray God we, repent and make good, to those harmed by very foolish decisions and actions.
“The Jews were exceedingly proud of their piety. They rejoiced over their temple, and regarded a word spoken in its disfavor as blasphemy; they were very rigorous in the performance of ceremonies connected with it; but the love of money had overruled their scruples. They were scarcely aware how far they had wandered from the original purpose of the service instituted by God Himself.” {DA 155.3}